The Glass Jigsaw
by Jilly Beany
Summary: Chollie. After everything she has been through Chloe is sure none of them see the real her. But he sees her... he sees the whole picture. One swear word.


The Glass Jigsaw.

Chollie. No one ever saw Chloe Sullivan; they only saw what they needed to see. But he saw... he saw all the pieces.

* * *

The Watchtower was more then just a tongue in cheek reminder of what she did. Sure if she ever let slip about Watchtower she would and could cover it up with the basic fact she lived in the place.

It was her role; among the superheroes. She was the Watcher and the tower they so often said held them up when it seemed they were ready to buckle under the evil they fought daily.

But not anymore; not after what she did.

With a sniffle Chloe Sullivan jerked her head hard when the biting memory of Oliver's words and her own actions washed over. Once upon a time she was just a girl hoping to do right, trying to save the world in her own way.

But along the way Once Upon A Time faded away just like her childhood and her innocent way of viewing the world.

She was a planner by nature, not that anyone would believe it by the way she could get in trouble but deep down she liked to plan and she liked to analyse all the information.

That was why when slipping into the role of Watchtower was such an easy transition that after a while she was sure she didn't even know she was doing it.

But considering what she did she knew she was never in that role... she was never that _person _when she did what she did.

"You know you have to be missing for forty eight hours before it can become a police matter" the one voice that she knew she didn't want to hear echoed around her.

The Watchtower was empty and not because she hadn't furnished it but because it seemed fitting that she alone lived there.

"I'm tired" the comment was meant to send him away, to avoid the harsh words that would break her more and remind her why she was no better then the women before her apart from her cousin.

"But did you know that the first twenty four hours are the most important when someone disappears" the way he manages to make it sound as though nothing happened didn't ease her because she knew him well enough to know he could bury emotions until they were needed.

"Oliver," the harsh tone was enough for him to tense and flash hazel eyes at her in a warning. Turning she couldn't find in it her self to play the new role.

She should have been begging for forgiveness, imploring him to understand why she stole from him. She promised herself even as she fuelled the money into the weapons that she would tell him why she did it.

"I was never missing" she offers in a soften tone watching as he eased himself back into her world with such grace that it made her wonder how anyone could ignore the fact that he was The Green Arrow.

"Really because I think two weeks of not turning up for work; two weeks of missed calls and only a few scatterings of E-mails can be classed as missing" to anyone else it would have been a teasing tone rolling from the blonde but she knew better.

The hidden accusation wasn't missed by her.

She stole from him, she got caught and now she was hiding.

"I've done my job; I'm still doing my job. It was never an _agreement_ that I had to work from the Clocktower" she offers watching with clear and unclouded eyes as he clenched his strong jaw and flickered his eyes around the empty tower.

"No it wasn't an agreement it was just acknowledgement that you are apart of the team" he stated causing her to swallow hard at the forceful way he said 'are'.

"Besides Watchtower was and always will be just an alias," he points out looking her dead in the eyes keeping his distance across the kitchen.

"It isn't a style you have to live" he finishes causing her to turn away and force herself to busy her mind with something that isn't the hero standing in her home.

"I can understand not returning my calls; hell I can even understand avoiding me but what I can't get my head around is why your pissed at me" the tone was harsh and there was nothing hidden about it.

Swallowing the hard bark of laughter she shook her head. Oliver Queen could be accused of a lot of things but being dumb was not one of them.

"I'm not pissed Oliver... I'm tired" she throws over her shoulder refusing to meet his eyes or any notion of talking with him tonight.

"No your avoiding me and now your getting pissy" he threw at her knowing full well it would get her attention and a reaction.

"Like you know" she couldn't help the mutter nor the bitterness that laced each word but what she could of helped was using the training she had received over the years to know he would take the moment to move closer.

"Know what sidekick" his voice, his warmth and just his presence was enough to make her stomach tighten and recoil at the same time.

At one time he was off limits for more then just one reason; Lois and Jimmy meant too much to her to ever let her mind wonder.

Then friendship jumped in to remind her that he was still off limits; but slowly she found herself thinking way too much about how that could change.

Now he was off limits for reasons all of her own doing.

"Oliver please just go home and let me sleep" she pleads with him knowing that despite how low the act was she still begged.

"Not until I know my sidekick isn't really missing" his voice was harsh against her ear and she forced the shudder away.

She made herself remember the look on his face when he informed her he knew the truth.

Slipping away she refused to look at him.

"I'm here and I'm safe so you can go be the hero to the rest of the world" she hadn't meant the bitterness that time she really hadn't but it slipped through.

"I'm still a friend Sidekick and I hoped even if we couldn't go back to how we were we could still have that" his wistful voice made her still and the tears that had threatened her late at night to rear back up.

"I know Oliver and I'm grateful but I'm really tired and I can't do this tonight" she admits forcing her self to turn and show him the dark circles and pale haggered features that had been mocking her for two weeks.

"I was shocked OK; I know I shouldn't have been because we all make mistakes but I still was because it's you... you're Watchtower" He exclaimed causing the blonde before him to sag and shake her head.

"Watchtower" she repeated watching as he nods in agreement.

"Who stole from you Oliver; who took all that money and built those weapons" she questions watching confusion fritter across his face.

"We don't... I understand" "But you really don't Oliver; you don't know anything" she mutters feeling the coiling knot in her stomach finally tightening to a painful end.

"I have so many nicknames, so many aliases that none of you really know me" she wants to scream this, she wants to vent everything that had built up in her over the years ever since she first became friends with an alien.

"Watchtower, sidekick, meteor-freak, reporter, best friend.... everyone looks at me and sees what they _want _to see" she is breaking and though she had promised herself never to do it in front of him she couldn't stop it.

The dam was breaking and she was being washed away.

"I don't see you like that... after what happened you should know that" he defends watching with concern as she shakes the tears loose.

"You most of all; I'm not sorry for what I did even though I knew it was wrong to steal that money but I can't be sorry for trying to stop what Lois saw. Why I went missing Oliver wasn't the guilt because I know deep down I would do it all again" she hates to admit but it was the truth.

"I went missing because you don't know who to be more angry at... your watchtower, your sidekick, your friend, your employee or your... booty call" she hisses the last word because she never once thought she would become that woman.

"And I figured it out then that none of you not even Clark really knows me; none of you really knew that woman who could do that because none of you know Chloe Sullivan" she exclaims and she knows that is when she feels it all.

The years of loving her best friend and never having him, the years of knowing her mother caused pain because she was doing what was right, the years of being that girl who was never spared another thought because she always smiled, the years of trying to fight evil that never cared enough to stop for a day and the years of hiding her heartache because she was meant to be someone else.

"So please Oliver go home and let me sleep" she can't make herself sound pitiful nor stern. And when the hero stared at her she forced herself to turn away and power down her link to the outside world.

"Your wrong" it wasn't the words that made her stop but the tone. She would have smirked at how confident he sounded if she wasn't really that tired.

"You think Chloe Sullivan isn't all those people you just listed; you think Chloe Sullivan is some other woman so alien to us she might as well be like Clark" he voice was stern and was meant to be heard.

"I will admit that yes I look at you and see what I need to see; one second I can look and see Watchtower then the next I can see my sidekick but those can be erased by my friend, my employee and my something more then friend in any given second" he admits refusing to use her word for what ever they had.

It has been his word but he refused to ever say it.

"You think I don't get it... you think I don't understand all this" he questions and she can't do anything but nod unsure now why she thought he wouldn't.

"I think it's you that don't understand; you class each of those people as being different people as though they weren't the same person. I get that your scared by the fact that after all these years of building these people up from scratch no one sees the person you started out as... you think we don't see Chloe Sullivan" he explains and she nods again knowing if anyone would understand it would be him.

"You can't see it... you can't see the whole picture because your too close" he stops and she tilts her head trying to understand why the sudden stop.

She watched the wheels turning in his head before he snapped and walked towards her refusing to let her get away, to rebuild those walls he had promised to bring down when she saved him.

"You know what you are" he questions in a forceful tone causing her to shake her head staring up at him as he loomed over her.

"Your a glass jigsaw... you only see pieces of you never seeing the full picture, you don't know that those pieces all fit together to make one picture" he explains softly watching as the logic sunk into her mind.

"We don't," a twitch of a muscle and he focuses his strong eyes on her.

"I don't see the _pieces _that make you up Chloe... I see the whole picture" he assures causing new tears to replace their bitter brothers and sisters.

"Why glass" she questions watching that soft smile brush against his lips before his fingers rose up to trace her cheek.

"Because even when you tower over us you still let the light in; you angle it so no matter how many shadows there are you let the light in" he admits with a small shrug before she is in his arms and she finally feels like she has all the pieces.

"You are however missing one last piece; even though glass can be strong this piece falls from a great height and always smashes" he mummers into her hair causing her to pull back and stare up at him with confusion.

Smiling down at her he moved one hand free and pointed to her heart.

"It keeps smashing but it never stops any of us from seeing the whole picture" he whispers and she shakes her head.

"Sometimes Jigsaws don't always come with all it's pieces Oliver" she mumbles causing Oliver to drag her back into his embrace and sigh into her hair.

"That's what makes you different from other jigsaws... even though you might lose that one piece there will always be another piece that will fit in there perfectly" he admits causing her to sniffle against his strong chest hoping that it was true.

"Get some sleep sidekick... I need you back" he orders removing her from his embrace but never looking at her with his gentle stare.

"There's too many shadows" he mutters before pressing a soft kiss to her forehead and left her standing there not feeling like a million pieces squeezed together but rather one large jigsaw missing one piece.

* * *

She would have slept the next day away if she had the choice but the pounding at her door made sure she wasn't going to.

She had laid in her bed for all of ten minutes after Oliver had left thinking over the words he had left her with before she fell into a sleep so peaceful she was sure that she was dead.

She hadn't felt peace in so long that she was sure it had to be the end.

However finding her feisty cousin standing on the other side of the door proved she wasn't dead she was just finally complete despite missing one last piece.

"Look before you slam the door in my face and return to your brooding I want to scream at you for making me worry" the brunette exclaimed in a tone boarding on emotional.

"I know that I've screwed things up lately because I know I haven't been there for you but...." the words stopped and she had to wonder what her cousin had seen to stop her rant.

"You don't look miserable... why the hell aren't you miserable" the dark haired woman demanded scowling at her cousin despite the lack of heat behind her words and glare.

"I can't even feel guilty about barging into your place now and I can't get mad at you for making me worry" despite her fiery nature the cousins both knew that she would never hold anything akin to a grudge against the blonde.

"I just figured some-things out" she admits knowing that it would take a whole lot of explaining to make the other understand.

"Damn; Chloe I'm sorry OK and I'm pissed because that means I don't get to use my awesome cousin act to make you feel better" she mutters but the smile once again lets slip there was no heat behind her anger.

"I didn't know that act changed to include bringing me gifts" she teases pointing to the small green box currently in the brooding cousins hand.

"Me... come on Chloe I was worried but not enough to break out the cash" she jokes before tossing the gift to her, both thankful that the training she had been forced to take let her catch the box easily.

"I found it outside while I was pounding on the door, which I might add might have woke the dead" the easy nature between them would return quicker then any other relationship either of them ever had with anyone else.

Unwrapping the box and noting that the green wasn't just a random choice the blonde woman knew then that Oliver wasn't just comforting her.

"A glass Jigsaw piece" the brunette questioned taking the offered Jigsaw piece from her cousin who lifted the card from the box and couldn't help the smile lighting her face.

'_It may not be one of a kind but it's the only kind that want smash if it falls' _

though the blonde wouldn't explain to her cousin just yet what the message nor the gift meant she assured her everything was going to be OK.

Because that morning she stood in Watchtower not a woman who had been buried beneath years of aliases but a woman who had been built piece by piece like a jigsaw to make a finish picture.

She stood there as Chloe Sullivan the glass Jigsaw.

No longer missing one piece.

* * *

OK my first Smallville Fic (I know the show is awesome) and there for my first Chloe/Oliver fic (AGAIN I KNOW... They need to start having those smart and cute blonde babies soon). So please be kind.


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